Air America Finds Buyer

According to the Associated Press, Air America Radio, the premiere liberal radio talk network, said it had reached an agreement with a buyer for the network.

Stephen Green, the founder and chairman of SL Green Realty Corp., has agreed to buy the network, which filed for bankruptcy last fall after reaching an impasse with one of its creditors.

Green, the prospective buyer of Air America, is the brother of Mark Green, who has frequently appeared as a guest on the network.

Additionally, Air America host Al Franken will be leaving the station, presumably to pursue a possible run for the US Senate in 2008. Franken recently took a leave from the network in order to do a USO tour for the troops in Iraq, in which Air America syndicated host Thom Hartmann took over the noon to three time slot. AAR plans to replace Franken’s noon to three time slot with Hartmann after Franken’s last day on the air, which is expected to be February 14th.

Air America Radio went on the air with much fanfare in 2004 as an alternative to conservative talk which has dominated the air throughout the 1990’s. Today Air America in joined by other liberal talk networks Head On Radio based out of West Virginia and Nova M Radio, which was founded by the same people who found Air America, and is the home of the no holds barred Mike Malloy Show. Others liberal talk show hosts have seen a large degree of success outside Air America, such as Ed Schultz, Bill Press, and Stephanie Miller, who are all syndicated by the Jones Radio Network.